Frustrated Brown reveals alternative Labour manifesto

Gordon Brown shows his frustration at Tony Blair's attempts to sideline him from Labour's manifesto preparations when he outlines his own proposals for a third term in today's Guardian.

After months of the Treasury being, he believes, deliberately snubbed by the prime minister's election supremo, Alan Milburn, his article pointedly describes what the manifesto "should" include.

Reflecting his belief that Labour has failed to convert two landslide election victories into a permanent political legacy, the chancellor says the party should make childcare the equivalent of the Attlee government's creation of the NHS in 1948. He writes: "As our manifesto and our programme for the coming decade should make clear, Labour's ambition is not simply tackling idleness but delivering full employment; not just attacking ignorance, disease and squalor but promoting lifelong education, good health and sustainable communities; instead of just freedom from want, our aim is the freedom of every child and every adult to fulfil their potential."

An ally of Mr Brown said last night that there had been a deliberate attempt to exclude the chancellor, who had a big role in drawing up the 1997 and 2001 manifestos, from the 2005 preparations, saying: "Unlike in the past, there has been no consultation with the Treasury."

He added that the attempts to exclude Mr Brown were an indication of how weakened Mr Blair had been by the invasion of Iraq and his announcement that he would resign during a third term. "It is not enough that the manifesto been seen as Blairite," the Brown insider said. "It has to be a Blairite manifesto from which Gordon Brown is excluded."

Mr Brown will begin a national campaigning tour this week to try to forestall the claim that he is not a "team player". Aides made little attempt to play down the tension generated by manifesto preparations. "Has there been a deliberate attempt to exclude the chancellor? Absolutely," one said last night.

Childcare is seen as a touchstone issue for the election. Mr Brown says there should be "generous child tax credits" and that planned 3,500 Sure Start centres by 2010 would help tackle "poor infant health, early learning difficulties and deprivation."